Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/manpro

Effect of metal transfer mode on spatter and arc stability in underwater flux- T
cored wire wet welding
⁎,1
Yunlong Fub, Ning Guoa,b, , Yongpeng Dub,c, Hao Chenb, Changsheng Xub, Jicai Fenga,b
a
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Welding Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai, Weihai 264209, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
c
Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ocean
Environmental Monitoring Techno1ogy, National Engineering and Technological Research Center of Marine Monitoring Equipment, Qingdao 266001, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The effect of metal transfer mode on spatter and arc stability during underwater flux-cored wire wet welding at
Underwater wet welding different process parameters are investigated adopting the synchronous acquisition system of X-ray image and
Welding spatter electric signal. Two spatter modes i.e. the local droplet repelled spatter and the droplet explosion spatter were
Arc stability observed for the first time. The generation of the local droplet repelled spatter is attributed to the excessive and
Metal transfer mode
unstable repulsive forces, while the droplet explosion spatter is caused by the unstable repulsive forces and gas
dynamic force. Welding spatters and arc stability depend on the metal transfer mode. During wide-angle
globular repelled transfer mode, the droplet repelled spatter mode is observed and the forming frequencies of the
local droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion spatter are higher than other transfer modes. The short-
circuit explosions are observed in short-circuit explosive transfer mode, causing numerous short-circuit explosive
spatters. With the increase of arc voltage, both the spatter loss coefficient and voltage variation coefficient
decrease firstly to the minimum at the arc voltage of 32 V and then increases gradually, attributed to the type
and proportion of metal transfer mode.

1. Introduction
Rowe and Liu stated that the underwater wet welding was widely
applied to the repair and maintenance on offshore structures owing to
its simpler welding process compared with dry welding and local cavity
welding [1]. Richardson et al. pointed out that the flux-cored wire wet
welding had considerably higher production efficiency than that of
underwater manual metal arc welding [2]. As there is no mechanical
barrier between the water and the welding arc, the water environment
and ambient pressure lead to unstable welding process and generate
numerous spatters in the flux-cored wire wet welding. Meneses et al.
reported that spatters could cause welding consumable losses and give
rise to the consumption of time and resources [3]. Molleda et al. de-
monstrated that spatter could lead to important metallurgical problems
such as corrosion pits, micro-cracks at the interface between spatter and
base material [4]. Ersoy et al. investigated the arc start instability and
spatter generation in gas metal arc welding, demonstrating the arc start
instability resulted in low weld penetration and high spatter generation
[5]. Li et al. reported that unstable arc would deteriorate weld
appearances and increase the amount of weld defects [6]. Modenesi and
De Avelar concluded that the welding stability and spatters produced
during welding exhibited similar behavior [7]. Yamamoto et al. sug-
gested that the welding spatter needed to be reduced as much as pos-
sible to improve the welding quality and efficiency [8]. Guo et al. stated
that the welding stability played a great role in the weld formation and
welding quality of the flux-cored wire wet welding [9].
As the main channel of heat and mass transfer during the welding
process, the metal transfer has a decisive effect on the welding stability
and the formation of welding spatter. Bonnet et al. reported that the
choice of proper metal transfer mode could decrease the welding
spatter during flux cored arc welding [10]. Guo et al. investigated the
welding stability during the underwater flux-cored wire wet welding,
indicating that the stability of the welding process was adversely af-
fected by the excessive repelled metal transfer and short-circuit transfer
[9]. Considerable researches have been performed to investigate the
welding spatter and welding stability in various welding method on
offshore welding. Liu et al. observed welding spatter of bridging
transfer without arc interruption mode and globular repelled transfer

⁎
Corresponding author at: No. 2 Wenhuaxi Road, Weihai 264209, China.
E-mail address: gn21c@126.com (N. Guo).
1
Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai, No. 2 West Culture Road, Weihai 264209, China.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2018.07.027
Received 19 April 2018; Received in revised form 15 June 2018; Accepted 28 July 2018
1526-6125/ © 2018 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Fu et al.
mode in flux cored arc welding and explained the bridge explosion,
discontinuous globular repelled process and the misalignment of dro-
plets transfer were the main factors causing the welding spatter [11]. Li
et al. observed two spatter types i.e. droplet deviated spatter and dro-
plet rebounded spatter during dry hyperbaric gas metal arc welding
(GMAW) process [12]. Kang and Rhee established a regression model to
estimate the spatter amount in short-circuiting metal transfer mode of
GMAW [13]. Chen et al. investigated the generation mechanism of
spatter produced by basic welding electrodes in the short-circuiting
mode of metal transfer, which explained that spatter was mainly gen-
erated while the CO gas exploded in the breakage of the short-circuit
bridge [14]. Luksa investigated the stability of the welding arc by
monitoring the GMAW process, which was crucial for the on-line
quality control of the GMAW [15]. Chu et al. demonstrated the short-
circuiting frequency was a determining factor on weld process stability
by analyzing the arc voltage and current [16].
In the field of underwater flux-cored wire wet welding, Guo et al.
investigated the welding spatter based on the X-ray transmission
method and three typical spatter modes, i.e. droplet repelled spatter,
explosive spatter and molten pool shock spatter were observed [17].
Guo et al. utilized the X-ray transmission method to monitor metal
transfer process and discuss the metal transfer modes in different
welding parameters [18]. Shi et al. adopted the reciprocal of the arc
voltage difference coefficient to determinate the arc stability of
shallow-wet welding [19]. Chen et al. studied the effect of water flow
on the arc stability with electrical signals, showing the increase of flow
rate would deteriorate stability of the wet welding process [20].
However, the welding spatter of underwater wet welding was only
studied at certain welding parameters, which was not comprehensive,
and the effect of metal transfer mode on spatter and arc stability in
underwater flux-cored wire wet welding has not been discussed clearly.
In the present research, a further work was implemented to investigate
spatters, arc stability and metal transfer process during underwater wet
welding. In addition, the influence of metal transfer mode on the spatter
types and amounts and arc stability were studied, which is necessary to
choose optimum transfer mode and improve the welding quality in
underwater wet welding.
2. Experimental procedure
The flux-cored wire wet welding experiments were carried out as
bead-on-plate welding on mild steel (Q235) plates having length, width
and thickness of 200 mm, 60 mm and 18 mm respectively, and the base
metal chemical composition was summarized in Table 1. The welding
consumable was TiO2-CaF2-CaO-SiO2 slag system self-shielded flux-
cored wire with a diameter of 1.6 mm. For underwater wet welding, the
SAF-FRODIGI@WAVE500 welding power source with matched auto-
matic wire feeding system was used and the welding polarity was direct
current electrode positive (DCEP). The distance from contact tip to
workpiece was fixed on 20 mm and the water depth of experimental
tank was 0.5 m. In order to investigate the welding spatter and the
metal transfer process comprehensively, the arc voltage (V) varied from
28 V to 40 V, and the welding current was 230 A with the 1.5 mm/s
welding speed. The specific welding parameters are shown in Table 2.
The synchronous acquisition system of X-ray image and electric
signal, composed of the X-ray imaging module and the electric signal
detection module, was used in this research, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The
X-ray imaging module consists of a micro-focused X-ray tube generating
the X-ray radiation, an image intensifier converting the X-ray
Table 1
Chemical Composition of Q235 (wt.%).
Base Metal C Mn Si S P
Q235 0.14–0.22 0.30–0.65 ≤0.30 ≤0.05 ≤0.045
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168
Table 2
Process parameters.
Process parameters Details
Arc voltage 28,30,32,34,36,40 V
Welding current 230 A
Welding velocity 1.5 mm/s
Contact tip-to-work distance 20 mm
Water depth 0.5 m
Polarity DCEP
transmission images into visible images and a high-speed video camera
for recording metal transfer images at a frame rate of 2 kHz. When the
X-ray traverses objects, X-ray could be absorbed and the absorption
amount depends on the density and thickness of objects. Based on
different density of water environment, bubbles and molten droplet, the
X-ray imaging module could surmount the disturbance of the water and
bubble around the arc burning area and capture clear images of the
welding spatter and droplet in underwater wet welding. The electric
signal detection module is composed of Hall current sensor (Type: LT
508-S6) and a Hall voltage sensor (Type: LV 25-P) sampling the arc
voltage and welding current respectively with a sampling frequency of
10 kHz/s. The collected electrical signals are transported into computer
by a Data Acquisition Card (USB6210) and keep reliable synchroniza-
tion with the high speed images in order to investigate the generation
mechanism of welding spatter and analyze the arc stability.
After underwater wet welding, all of the spatter particles deposited
on the plate and in the water tank are collected. The spatter loss
coefficient (w) is defined as the ratio of the weight of spatter to that of
the weld seam, which can be represented by the following equation:
w = m/(m2 − m1 + m) (1)
Where m is the quality of spatter, m1 is the quality of welding specimen
before welding and m2 is the quality of welding specimen after final
welding.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Welding spatter modes
Through observing the high-speed camera imagines, five spatter
modes are identified during underwater wet welding and three modes
i.e. droplet repelled spatter, explosive spatter and molten pool shock
spatter have been discussed by Guo et al. [17]. Two other spatter modes
including the local droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion
spatter are investigated, and the specific spatter forming processes are
described as follows.
3.1.1. Local droplet repelled spatter
Different from the droplet repelled spatter, the local droplet repelled
spatter refers to partial droplet repelled from whole droplet by the re-
pulsive forces and falling outside the molten pool. Fig. 2 presents the
typical formation process of the local droplet repelled spatter. From
3.6855 s to 3.6935 s, the molten droplet generating on the wire tip is
repelled violently from the wire axis and rotates around the wire tip as
the gravitation and repulsive forces change. At 3.6935 s, a part of
droplet separates from the whole droplet, but does not transfer into the
welding pool. After 3.6935 s, the separating droplet is gradually away
from the weld pool and turns into welding spatter, meanwhile the re-
maining droplet still suspends on the wire end. The synchronous elec-
tric signal of the spatter formation process is shown in Fig. 3, indicating
the arc voltage and welding current fluctuate during spatter formation
process but arc interruption is not observed. The average diameter of
local droplet repelled spatter is approximately 1.2 mm much smaller
than that of droplet repelled spatter, about 4.5 mm mentioned by Guo
et al. [17], and thus this kind of spatter have less effect on welding
Y. Fu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168

Fig. 1. Schematic of the synchronous acquisition system of X-ray image and electric signal.

consumables losses and welding appearance.

In underwater wet welding, the mass transfer process hinges on all
forces acting on the droplet, and the force analysis is crucial for in
studying the formation mechanism of different welding spatter modes.
Fig. 4 shows the schematic of force condition during formation process
of local droplet repelled spatter, where seven forces act on the droplet
including gravitational (G), plasma drag force (F1), electromagnetic
force (Fe), surface tension (Fs), vaporization force (Fa), gas dynamic
force (Fq) and gas flow drag force (FL). The surface tension (Fs) and
vaporization force (Fa) retain the droplet on the wire top while the
plasma drag force (F1) and gravitational (G) promote the droplet
transfer, similar to the in-air welding. During underwater flux-cored
wire wet welding, the oxygen and the carbon in high-temperature
droplet reaction region react intensively with each other, which pro-
duces carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas inside the droplet.
Accordingly, the inner surface of droplet is squeezed by carbon mon- Fig. 3. Synchronous electric signals of the local droplet repelled spatter mode.
oxide and carbon dioxide gas, causing the gas dynamic force (Fq) per-
pendicular to the droplet interior surface. Compared with in-air spatter formation process. In underwater wet welding, the droplet is
welding the arc temperature is reduced by the cool effect of the sur- protected by the gas bubbles generating and floating upon from the
rounding water and therefore the arc shrinks based on the principle of weld pool surface periodically from the ambient water, and the gas flow
minimum voltage, causing that the electromagnetic force (Fe) as one drag force (FL) is induced by the relative motion between the droplet
retentive and repulsive force on droplet. As shown in Fig. 3, the welding and gas in bubbles, which repels the droplet violently. Guo et al. pro-
current fluctuates constantly so that the Fe is variable during welding posed the magnitude of FL depends on the droplet diameter and the

Fig. 2. Formation process of the local droplet repelled spatter mode.

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Y. Fu et al.
Fig. 4. Schematic of force condition during the formation process of local
droplet repelled spatter.
flow velocity of gas in the bubble, which changes consistently in the
metal transfer process [21]. Under the combined action of FL and Fe, the
droplet is repelled violently. Once the repulsive force acting on droplet
is larger than the surface tension within droplet, partial droplet will be
torn from the whole droplet and moves upwards vertically. If the se-
parating droplet does not transfer into the welding pool, the local
droplet repelled spatter generates.
3.1.2. Droplet explosion spatter
Guo et al. described the explosive spatter was attributed to the
short-circuit explosion occurring in the touching location of the droplet
and molten pool surface [17]. In this paper, however, the droplet ex-
plosion spatter means spatters were generated by the explosion of
droplet while the droplet does not touch the welding pool and the re-
presentative process is shown in Fig. 5. From 1.3875 s to 1.3915 s the
droplet grows and rotates on the wire end in the form of repelled
transfer mode. At 1.3915 s the molten droplet explodes and breaks up,
causing large numbers of tiny droplet. As shown in frame c–e of Fig. 5,
some droplets transfers into the molten pool but others move upwards
vertically and changes into welding spatter. As illustrated in Fig. 6, after
the molten droplet explodes, the arc voltage exceeds 80 V and the
welding current reduces to near 0 A, indicating the arc extinguishes
caused by droplet explosion spatter. The average diameter of droplet
explosion spatter is only about 0.7 mm, but once it forms during metal
Fig. 5. Formation process of the droplet explosion spatter mode.
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168
Fig. 6. Synchronous electric signals of the droplet explosion spatter mode.
transfer process a large number of spatters will generate and the arc will
extinguish. It demonstrates that this spatter mode has a significant ef-
fect on welding consumables losses and welding appearance.
As displayed in Fig. 4, the inner surface of droplet is subject to the
gas dynamic force (Fq), whose direction is perpendicular to the droplet
interior surface. The magnitude of Fq depends on the density of gas
inside droplet. During the metal transfer process, the shape and volume
of droplet is changed ceaselessly by the repulsive forces, and thus the Fq
is in unstable state. When the Fq is greater than the surface tension
within droplet, the droplet explosion spatter generates.
3.2. Effect of metal transfer mode on welding spatter and arc stability
Guo et al. demonstrated that four transfer modes i.e. wide-angle
globular repelled transfer mode, small-angle globular repelled transfer
mode, surface tension transfer mode and short-circuit explosive transfer
mode were observed in wet welding [21]. To choose optimum metal
transfer mode and improve the welding quality in underwater wet
welding, effects of metal transfer mode on the spatter types and
amounts and arc stability are investigated.
3.2.1. Welding spatter mode
To investigate the effect of metal transfer mode on welding spatter,
the spatter modes and their frequency at different metal transfer modes
are counted and analyzed based on the high-speed camera images, as
displayed in Fig. 7. The explosive spatter is renamed as short-circuit
Y. Fu et al.
Fig. 7. Welding spatter chart at different metal transfer modes (a) wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode; (b) small-angle globular repelled transfer mode; (c)
short-circuit explosive transfer mode (d) surface tension transfer mode.
explosive spatter, in order to be distinguished from the droplet ex-
plosive spatter.
In wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode, the welding spatters
are composed of droplet repelled spatter, molten pool shock spatter,
local droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion spatter, whose
frequency is 1.3 Hz, 3.4 Hz, 1.7 Hz and 0.2 Hz respectively, as shown in
Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) indicates that compared with spatters in wide-angle
globular repelled transfer mode, the welding spatters during small-
angle globular repelled transfer mode do not cover droplet repelled
spatter and the frequency of local droplet repelled spatter and droplet
explosion spatter drop to 1.1 Hz and 0.1 Hz, while molten pool shock
spatter shows a nearly constant frequency. As exhibited in Fig. 7(c), in
short-circuit explosive transfer mode, the welding spatters consist of
molten pool shock, local droplet repelled spatter and short-circuit ex-
plosive spatter, and the corresponding frequency is 3.6 Hz, 1.5 Hz and
5.1 Hz. In surface tension transfer mode, the welding spatters are only
comprised of molten pool shock with frequency of 3.2 Hz and local
droplet repelled spatter with frequency of 1.1 Hz, as shown in Fig. 7(d).
Expect the molten pool shock spatter, caused by severe concussion of
welding pool, other welding spatter types and their formation fre-
quencies depend on the metal transfer mode. The droplet repelled
spatter and short-circuit explosive spatter are only observed in wide-
angle globular repelled transfer mode and short-circuit explosive
transfer mode, respectively. The local droplet repelled spatter is ob-
served in all four metal transfer modes with different generation fre-
quencies. The droplet explosion spatter appears both in the wide-angle
globular repelled transfer mode and small-angle globular repelled
transfer mode. However, the frequency of droplet explosion spatter in
wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode is double that in small-angle
globular repelled transfer mode.
Fig. 8 displays the wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode and
the small-angle globular repelled transfer mode, whose synchronous
electric signals are shown in Fig. 9. During the wide-angle globular
repelled transfer mode, the strong and unstable repulsive forces act on
the droplet and the electric signals fluctuate considerably, causing the
local droplet repelled spatter and the droplet explosion spatter is gen-
erated with relatively high frequency. When the droplet detaches from
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168
wire tip, the angle between droplet and wire axis is more than 90 de-
grees, making it possible that the whole droplet does not transfer into
the welding pool and thus the droplet repelled spatter generates. During
small-angle globular repelled transfer mode, the electric signals fluc-
tuate steadily and the angle between droplet and wire axis is less than
90 degrees when the droplet detaches from wire tip. Consequently, the
droplet transfers into the welding pool directly and no droplet repelled
spatter generates. During the small-angle globular repelled transfer
process, the repulsive force is less and the movement of the droplet is
more stable, causing lower frequency of local droplet repelled spatters
and droplet explosion spatter comparing with wide-angle globular re-
pelled transfer mode.
Fig. 10 shows the metal transfer process of the surface tension
transfer mode and short-circuit explosive transfer mode. During re-
pelled stage of these two transfer modes, droplets rotate around the
wire tip under the effect of repulsive forces and thus local droplet re-
pelled spatters are produced similar to that of repelled transfer mode.
During surface tension transfer mode, when the droplet touches the
molten pool, the droplet separates from wire tip and transfers into the
welding pool without short-circuit explosion, as shown in Fig. 10(a). As
shown in Fig. 10(b), when the droplet contacts the welding pool during
the short-circuit explosive transfer mode, the droplet is not transferred
directly but repelled by the repulsive forces, and then the droplet sur-
face connecting with solid wire touches the weld pool surface, giving
rise to the short-circuit explosive spatter.
When the droplet touches the welding pool, the surface tension (Fs)
and the electromagnetic force (Fe) arise in liquid bridge, as shown in
Fig. 11. Fig. 12 displays the synchronous electric signals of surface
tension transfer mode and short-circuit explosive transfer mode. As
shown in Fig. 12(a), during the surface tension transfer mode, while the
liquid bridge generates at 33.0615 s, the welding current increase from
223 A to 399 A, causing the Fe increases rapidly. The Fe could be di-
vided into axial force and radial force. The direction force of the radial
Fe pointed towards the droplet interior, causing the liquid bridge
shrinks. Meanwhile, the direction of the Fe points toward the weld pool
from the necking place of the droplet, beneficial to the droplet transi-
tion. In addition, both the directions of the gravitational (G) and the
Y. Fu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168

Fig. 8. Metal transfer images (a) wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode; (b) small-angle globular repelled transfer mode.

Fig. 9. The synchronous electric signals (a) wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode; (b) small-angle globular repelled transfer mode.

Fig. 10. Metal transfer images (a) surface tension transfer mode; (b) short-circuit explosive transfer mode.

surface tension (Fs) between droplet and welding pool pointe toward
the molten pool. Under the effect of driving forces including G, Fs and
Fe, the droplet separates from solid wire and enters into the welding
pool without short-circuit explosion. As shown in Fig. 12(b), when the
droplet surface connecting with solid wire touches the weld pool sur-
face at 49.3015 s, the welding current soars from 207 A to 487 A, which
is much higher than that of surface tension transfer mode. Contributed
to the large short-circuit welding current, the metal bridge overheats
and evaporates, resulting in short-circuit explosive spatter produced in
short-circuit explosive transfer mode.
3.2.2. Welding spatter loss coefficient
The spatter loss coefficients at different process parameters are
calculated through collecting spatters after underwater wet welding
and the corresponding proportions of fundamental metal transfer
modes during the same welding process are also analyzed, as shown in
Fig. 13. As the arc voltage increases from 28 V to 40 V, the spatter loss
coefficient decreases firstly to the minimum 0.08 at the arc voltage of
32 V and then it increases gradually from 0.08 to maximum 0.16. The
variation trend of spatter loss coefficient with arc voltage depends on
the type and proportion of metal transfer mode during metal transfer
process under certain process parameters. When the arc voltage is 32 V,
the metal transfer mode in underwater wet welding consists of wide-
angle globular repelled transfer mode, small-angle globular repelled
transfer mode and surface tension transfer mode, and the corresponding
proportions are 32%, 38% and 36% respectively. As the arc voltage

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Fig. 13. Welding spatter loss coefficient and corresponding transfer mode
proportions at different process parameters.

Fig. 11. Schematic of force condition in liquid bridge.

increases from 32 V to 40 V, the percentage of wide-angle globular re-

pelled transfer mode increases while that of small-angle globular re-
pelled transfer mode and surface tension transfer mode decreases gra-
dually, which causes the frequency of droplet repelled spatter, local
droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion spatter increases con-
tinuously and thus the spatter loss coefficient increases. When the arc
voltage decreases from 32 V to 28 V, the short-circuit explosive transfer
mode is observed and the corresponding proportion in metal transfer
process increases gradually, indicating the growing number of short-
circuit explosive spatters is produced. Consequently, the spatter loss
coefficient rises gradually, although the proportion of wide-angle
globular repelled transfer mode decreases while that of small-angle
globular repelled transfer mode and surface tension transfer mode in-
creases.
In underwater flux-cored wire wet welding the wide-angle globular Fig. 14. The probability N (%) of the arc voltage.
repelled transfer mode and short-circuit explosive transfer mode are
more prone to produce spatters than the small-angle globular repelled exist during welding processes, and the proportions of the short-circuit
transfer mode and the surface tension transfer mode owing to the ex- process and arc interruption within the welding process are represented
istence of the droplet repelled spatter and the short-circuit explosive by the region area of the short-circuit hump and the arc interruption
spatter, respectively. In addition, the higher forming frequencies of the hump, respectively. With the arc voltage increasing from 28 V to 40 V,
local droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion spatter than those the short-circuit hump decreases gradually, and the arc interruption
of other transfer modes is another main factor that increases the spat- hump decreases firstly to the minimum area at 32 V and then increases
ters in the wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode. gradually, indicating the probability of arc interruption is less at arc
voltage of 32 V. The arc voltage variation coefficient, calculated by
dividing the standard deviation by the average of a set of data, is used
3.2.3. Arc stability to describe the arc stability. As shown in Fig. 15, the coefficient of
Fig. 14 displays the probabilitydensity distribution of the voltage voltage variation decreases firstly to the minimum 0.18 at 32 V and
under different arc voltages. The characteristic three hump shape is then increases with the increase of voltage, demonstrating the welding
observed, indicating the short-circuit transition and arc interruption

Fig. 12. The synchronous electric signals (a) surface tension transfer mode; (b) short-circuit explosive transfer mode.

167
Y. Fu et al.
Fig. 15. The variation coefficient of arc voltage and corresponding transfer
mode proportions at different process parameters.
arc burning more stably at arc voltage of 32 V. The arc stability in
underwater wet welding hinges on the type and proportion of metal
transfer mode. As displayed in Fig. 15, with the increase of arc voltage
from 28 V to 32 V, although the percentage of surface tension transfer
mode increases, the short-circuit explosive transfer mode disappears,
causing the short-circuit hump decreases. Owing to the generation of
short-circuit explosion during short-circuit explosive transfer mode, as
shown in Fig. 12(b), the reduction of proportion of short-circuit ex-
plosive transfer mode decreases the arc interruption hump and the
voltage variation coefficient, indicating arc stability is superior at arc
voltage of 32 V. As the voltage increases further, the surface tension
transfer mode reduces and thus the short-circuit hump decreases fur-
ther. As shown in Fig. 9, during the wide-angle globular repelled
transfer mode the electrical signal fluctuates violently and the arc even
breaks, indicating poor arc stability. With the arc voltage increasing
from 32 V to 40 V, the percentage of wide-angle globular repelled
transfer mode increases, giving rise to the increase of the arc inter-
ruption hump and voltage variation coefficient.
Consequently, in underwater wet welding the small-angle globular
repelled transfer mode and the surface tension transfer mode are fa-
vorable to reduce the welding spatters and improve the welding quality,
while the wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode and short-circuit
explosive transfer mode should be controlled reasonably during the
metal transfer process.
4. Conclusions
(1) The local droplet repelled spatter and droplet explosion spatter are
investigated, which are caused by the unstable repulsive forces and
gas dynamic force respectively.
(2) The welding spatter modes and the spatter loss coefficient depend
on the type and proportion of metal transfer modes in the under-
water wet welding.
(3) In underwater wet welding the proportion of short-circuit explosive
transfer mode and the wide-angle globular repelled transfer mode
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 35 (2018) 161–168
should be decreased in order to reduce the welding spatters and
stabilize the welding arc.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the financial support to this study from
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.
HIT.NSRIF.201602, HIT.NSRIF.201704, HIT. MKSTISP.201617), the
Shandong Provincial Key Research and Development Plan (Grant No.
2016ZDJS05A07, 2017CXGC0922, 2018GGX103003) and the Natural
Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2017QEE005,
ZR2017PEE010).
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